Wolfowitz Departure: Healing 1st Step

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz departs his home in Chevy Chase, Md., Friday, May 18, 2007. Wolfowitz said Thursday he will resign at the end of June, giving up his long fight to survive pressure for his ouster over the generous compensation he arranged for his girlfriend. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (J. Scott Applewhite - AP)

WASHINGTON -- The Wolfowitz episode hobbled the World Bank's work of aiding the poor, and Paul Wolfowitz's resignation was just the first step in a healing process. The Bush administration hopes to quickly name a successor to take over that effort.

The new chief will need to regain trust, rebuild credibility and mend frayed relations inside the poverty-fighting institution as well as with its 185 member countries.

All of those things are critical for Wolfowitz's successor, who will have to persuade countries to contribute close to $30 billion over the next few years to fund a centerpiece bank program that provides interest-free loans to the poorest countries.

"We want to move swiftly in this process," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Friday. "We want to make sure that we are selecting the best individual for the job. We want someone who has a real passion for lifting people out of poverty."

One day earlier, Wolfowitz announced that he would step down on June 30, his leadership undermined by a furor over a hefty compensation package he arranged in 2005 for Shaha Riza, a bank employee and his girlfriend.

His departure will end a two-year stint at the development bank that was marked by controversy from the start. Before his appointment, he had been a major architect of the Iraq war as the No. 2 official at the Pentagon.

The resignation also ends a political headache for President Bush, who had named him to the post.

The controversy put the bank's staff of 10,000 worldwide in revolt, tarnished the bank's reputation and strained relations with other countries, especially Europeans, who led the charge for Wolfowitz's ouster.

"Like any good diplomat, there will need to be one of these early tours to European capitals, explain what he or she is about and kind of mend fences with the donor countries," said Joel Oestreich, a political science professor at Drexel University who has done research on the bank.

"What is needed is a good manager and somebody who is going to be perceived as listening to the concerns of the people in the bank and really working with them rather than being seen as more insulated from bank staff," he added. Wolfowitz's critics complained about his management style.

In the U.S. and overseas, everyone seemed to be looking ahead:

_ Alison Cave, head of the bank's staff association, which had advocated Wolfowitz's resignation, said, "What we are hoping for is somebody who really has leadership capacity. Somebody who is a person of vision, who has demonstrated diplomatic abilities to bring development partners and clients together and really somebody who trusts the staff."